Early Joe Norris painting comes home to Canada
Owner remembers dancing with the artist at the village community hall
An early Joe Norris painting bought in Nova Scotia in the mid-1970s, then brought to the UK by its owner and bequeathed to her best friend and former Maritime neighbour, is now coming back to Canada and with it a story that includes dancing with the artist.
That neighbour, Martha Parry, was stunned when about a year ago she purchased Bernard Riordon’s book, Joe Norris: Painted Visions of Nova Scotia and came across a photo on page 93. “I looked closely and noticed a painting hanging beside him on the fish store wall, and recognized it as my painting hanging beside me on my wall, bought from him so long ago!”
Joe Norris: Painted Visions of Nova Scotia by Bernard Riordon
On page 93 of Riordon’s book, Martha Parry’s Joe Norris painting is shown hanging in front of the Lower Prospect fish store, right next to the artist himself. Image courtesy of Peter Sheppard.
Martha knew the history of the painting, but the photograph in the book confirmed once and for all its provenance as a seminal image from Joe Norris’s earliest work. It’s painted with enamel paint on a 46-by-20-inch piece of grooved wallboard and depicts a central view of the Lower Prospect cove. Essentially, it portrays the view that Joe looked at every day. What’s striking is that in this painting you can see all of the elements he went on to develop and explore over his two-decade career and an estimated 2,000 works.
The bold, primary colours, simple composition, flattened perspective, and joyful depiction of his surroundings are all present. With no formal training, Joe drew inspiration from what he saw on television, in the surrounding landscape, and from his memory. He continued to produce images in the same style, observing and exploring his home region throughout his career.
The painting, Sail Boats off the Coast, Lower Prospect, will now be sold at Miller & Miller’s October 9, 2025 auction, Post-War Canadian Folk Art.
It encapsulates Joe Norris as a folk artist working in his own way, in his own style, before anyone influenced him. He was a folk artist in the truest definition, using whatever materials he could find to paint on. He wasn’t worried, for example, about the groove running across the panel in this painting. He simply painted over it with small tubs of modelling paint. Joe had faced hard times, so it made sense for him to use whatever was available.
At the time Sail Boats off the Coast was painted, Joe hadn’t yet met or become influenced by Chris Huntington, the American art dealer who later helped bring his art (and that of many other unknown folk artists) from the roadside stand to a wider audience. Joe had retired as a fisherman after a heart attack at the age of 49, when he turned fulltime to painting.
Joe Norris went on to gain international attention and has been called “a Nova Scotia icon and a national treasure” by Bernard Riordon, former Director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He lived to see his work featured in major exhibitions, including the 1976 Folk Art of Nova Scotia at the Gallery of Nova Scotia and the 1983 National Gallery of Canada’s travelling show, From the Heart.
The following Norris works are also included in the October 9th sale:
In 1972, Martha and CBC Radio journalists Pat and Neil Copeland became neighbours in Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia. As the community’s first newcomers, they were warmly welcomed by the close-knit fishing village and soon fell in love with the area and its people. Joe Norris lived directly across the cove, and everyone was fond of him. Martha still refers to him as “Josey,” remembering him as shy and gentle. She even recalls dancing with him one evening at the community hall in nearby Terence Bay.
Photos of Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia in the early 1970s, courtesy of Martha Parry.
Pat had bought the painting directly from Joe back in those early days when, as Martha recalls, “he had just started to paint”.
A few years later, Pat reminisced with Joe in a rare audio interview for CBC. In their exchange, they spoke about their changing community, and Pat recalled the painting she had purchased from him a decade earlier. Shortly after, Pat moved to the UK, where Martha had already relocated after her marriage. During their annual visits, they often reflected on Lower Prospect as their “happiest place,” unaware at the time of Joe’s growing fame. As Pat’s health declined, she gave Martha the painting, which Martha carried home under her arm on the train.
Listen to the interview below:
“It’s been hanging on my wall for 15 years and has given me great pleasure, but I have always hoped to return this work to Nova Scotia.”
By Phillip Ross
Phillip Ross became fascinated with Canadian folk art in 1982 when he started making bi-weekly trips to Quebec to purchase folk art and antiques. He brought them to markets and exhibitions, mostly in Ontario and Quebec. With his wife Jeanine, they also had a shop named Old Church Trading in their century-old church in Norfolk County, Ontario, and later, after moving to nearby Port Dover, they ran a shop named Shadfly Antiques. Since December 2011, he has written multiple blog entries chronicling his collecting experiences on his site shadflyguy.com.
SALE INFORMATION:
Post-War Canadian Folk Art
October 9, 2025 | 9am EST
A Miller & Miller Online Webcast Auction
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